Courses

All courses carry three credits unless otherwise specified.

NeuroS&B 617 Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neurobiology
The objective of this course is to provide NSB and MCB graduate students with the background necessary to understand the molecular and cellular processes underlying brain development and neural functioning. The course brings together a number of faculty who have both training and expertise in the topics covered. An understanding of molecular and cellular neurobiology and neural development is becoming increasingly important, especially with the advent of transgenic animals and their use in a wide range of research fields.

NeuroS&B 618 Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience
This is a core course required of all Neuroscience and Behavior Program Ph.D. and M.S. students. The purpose of the course is to provide students with an overview of neuroanatomy and systems neuroscience, with special emphasis on cognition, including perception, recognition, attention, memory, and motor control. Additional topics to be covered include sensory systems, circadian rhythms and sleep-wakefulness, reproductive and maternal behaviors, and long-term potentiation. Weekly lab sessions will focus on learning neuroanatomy by sheep brain dissection, neurohistology exercises involving examination of brain sections stained using different techniques, and methods in cognitive neuroscience, including EEG recording, brain imaging with functional MRI, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and eye tracking. Credit, 4.

NeuroS&B 699 Master’s Thesis
Credit, 1-10.

NeuroS&B 792A Proseminar
This mandatory pass/fail course is for first-year graduate students in the Neuroscience and Behavior Program. This course provides the opportunity for incoming graduate students to interact regularly with other graduate students and faculty to maintain a sense of community within the Program. Students will learn about available opportunities for extramural funding, the basics of grant-writing, and learn to become active participants in discussions of research in colloquia. Resources that are available on-campus and on-line for research related activities will be highlighted. At the end of the semester each student will prepare and present an academic talk regarding their research or research interests. A series of short seminars will be given by faculty within the Neuroscience and Behavior Program to allow students to become familiar with current research in each of the core areas of the program: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience; Neural and Behavioral Development; Neuroendocrinology; Animal Behavior, Learning and Computational Neuroscience; and, Sensory and Motor Systems. Credit, 1.

NeuroS&B 891C Biological Rhythms
This Journal Club will focus on neurobiology and modeling of circadian rhythms in mammals. The circadian clock is comprised of a network of cell-autonomous oscillators whose function depends upon transcriptional-translational feedback loops. The master pacemaker is entrained by environmental signals and regulates slave oscillators throughout the organism. This is an exciting and highly multidisciplinary field: mathematical modeling as well as molecular neurobiology are essential to understand these rhythms. The five-college clocks group brings together students and faculty from several departments. Credit, 1-3.

NeuroS&B 892B Synapses, Circuits and Behavior
The purpose of this course is to consider the molecular and cellular mechanisms necessary for proper development and function of synapses and neural circuits in the brain and how information processing through these largely static structures can be reconfigured and modulated to permit organisms to modify behavior. Our discussions of nervous system function will consider not only the normal brain, but how disruption of synaptic and circuit function contributes to disease. Credit, 1.

NeuroS&B 899 Doctoral Dissertation
Credit, 18.